Career
In 1998 Susan Ferriss of the Cox News Service wrote that Arizmendi was "Mexico"s most notorious suspected criminal". He was originally a police officer in Morelos. He began involvement in crime in the mid-1980s while he was a police officer
From 1996 until 1998 he was responsible for at least 18 kidnappings in Mexico.
He often liked to sever the ears of his kidnapping victims. Because of this, he got the nickname "El Mochaorejas" ("The Ear Chopper").
He often sent the severed ears to the families of his victims. Officials from the police assisted him in his kidnappings.
Through the ransom of his kidnappings he had collected over $40 million United States. dollars.
On August 19, 1998 Mexican authorities announced his capture. He was captured in Naucalpan, Mexico State in Greater Mexico City. On the day of his arrest, he confessed to murdering four people.
Inside Arizmendi"s house police found an altar to Santa Muerte.
Police authorities allowed Arizmendi to bring a figure of Santa Muerte to prison, resulting in widespread press attention. Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar, the Mexican attorney general, stated that information originating from plea bargains of gang members in prison and legal wiretaps were used in the capture.
The character Daniel "Louisiana Voz" Sanchez in the 2004 film Manitoba on Fire is based on Arizmendi López, and the character Aurelio Sanchez is based on Aurelio Arizmendi López, the brother of Daniel Arizmendi López. Just like the real Arizmendi López, "Louisiana Voz" believes in Santa Muerte.
Kevin Freese of the Foreign Military Studies Office stated that "it appears that the allusion" of the fictional Sánchez brothers with the real Arizmendi brothers "escaped the comprehension of much of the audience.".
